<p><strong>Modesto, CA</strong><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Blue Diamond Growers' fiscal year 2011-12 sales rose to a record $1 billion with two-year growth of $300 million driven by demand for value-added almond products.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/bluediamond.jpg" alt="Blue Diamond" /><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We are winning in the marketplace by executing our superior business model, enhancing margins and growing our value-added businesses," stated CEO Mark Jansen. "We added $13 million in savings to the $14 million we achieved last year, and we will continue to invest in new technologies that will lower costs and increase processing yields for higher levels of profitability year after year."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Blue Diamond will open phase 1 of its new 88-acre Turlock plant in May 2013 and hire up to 100 employees. This will bring incremental capacity to the organization, which already has the world's largest existing almond processing facilities in Sacramento and Salida.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Our balance sheet is investment grade which allowed us to finance our new plant over the next 15 years at a record low rate that will earn growers who deliver to Blue Diamond several cents more on their 2013 annual returns and for many years to come. We have the opportunity to invest even more aggressively to create long-term value for our owners," said Jansen, who asked growers to share his confidence that "Blue Diamond is one of the highest returning and safest investments."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">A new North American advertising campaign designed to inspire a healthy lifestyle among consumers, was launched during the 2012 London Olympic Games in a call to action to "Get Your Good Going." Blue Diamond snack almond sales jumped 21 percent during the fiscal year ending August 31, but sales during the Olympic Games alone rose 43 percent.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The opening of Blue Diamond's Almond Innovation Center at its Sacramento headquarters in early 2013 will increase the speed of innovation and lower the cost of creating new products. Experts will be working with the world's largest food companies to include almonds in their new product formulations.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.bluediamond.com" target="_new"> Blue Diamond Growers </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
